“It is always best to pay for quality” Sarunas MARCIULIONIS:
The Day’s correspondent met the Northern European Basketball League (NEBL) commissioner, and Olympic champion Sarunas Marciulionis during the debut of the Kyiv Basketball Club in the starting League matches recently held at Kyiv’s Palace of Sports. Sarunas, a well-known and respected personality in the sports world, was one of the first Soviet masters to be invited to the Mecca of modern basketball and play for a US National Basketball League club. And today he is again among the pioneers of a new interesting undertaking: it was he who advanced the idea of establishing the Northen European Basketball League. Once, a well-known basketball authority, ex-coach of the USSR national team, Aleksandr Gomelsky, characterizing the team of Lithuania, noted, “There are two great basketball players in it: Sabonis and Marciulionis.” The following interview with what may be called Baltic legend touches upon the present-day European and post- Soviet basketball.
”What provoked the idea of establishing the new European basketball association, the Northen European League?”
“There is a common truth: nobody will take care of us unless we take care of ourselves. Take, for instance, the former Soviet states, now going through by no means the best of times. As a rule, they have one, two, or three at best, teams which are financially capable of mustering strong players. The result is that national championships are today quite boring, where the favorites apart from settling their own scores indulge in massacre of the innocents. But the leaders are not so rich, either. Ukraine’s champion, the Odesa-based Bipa-Moda, simply fell apart the next season after their triumph for lack of adequate funds, let alone children’s basketball which has in fact simply withered away. Many well-known children’s and adolescents’ sports schools have closed down, there are almost no games.
“On the other hand, there are countries in economically-strong Europe, where basketball is or is not popular. The latter category wants to cultivate this game, but they have nothing to fill the domestic market with. This is why, as we see, many clubs need international matches on a professional level, a first- class plot with a fitting rivalry, a show that would tempt television.”
”And the idea of staging a show like this seems to have been put into practice. What is the League in fact?”
“At the end of the year before last, representatives of five countries founded the Northen European Basketball League. This is a non-governmental organization that earns money and immediately earmarks it for the development of the game. For this is the only thing that can help keep the strongest masters at home. I will point out that in this respect our ideas run counter to the way the European federation, FIBA, understands the development of basketball. I believe that, for example, Kaunas’s Zalgiris can be quite content with playing in the championship of Lithuania, where there are very few clubs, and in our League. Incidentally, the Kaunas players, having become the first winners of the League gold medals, earned $45,000 apiece.
“But the main thing is different: look at the filled-to-capacity grandstands of the Kyiv Palace of Sports. The fan missed the spectacle of real basketball. To my mind, both matches with the participation of Kyiv versus Riga’s Broceni and the Swedish Magic M7, brought genuine pleasure to the spectators, for they saw above all professionalism.”
“And would you like to come out on the court now?”
“Many athletes sometimes say they are fed up with seeing themselves and are ready to abandon the big arena. To be frank, I am not yet fed up, although, as you know, I played on the basketball Olympus for three NBA clubs. Unfortunately, I had to drop this pursuit because of injuries. But each time I see an orange ball in play my hands literally itch to catch it at once and dunk it. This must be the prime reason why I decided to apply my experience to the development of basketball in Europe. What is more, sometimes even today I come out on the court to rub shoulders with Lithuania’s Minister of Sports Rimas Kurtinaitis (formerly, captain of Zalgiris, Olympic and USSR champion — Ed.).”
“You are a national hero in Lithuania. People recognize and greet you on the street. I also think you own one of Vilnius’s best hotels and that it is always full.”
“The results depend on how you do business. If you create comfort and coziness for the guests, they will stay only at your hotel. If you make the League championship prestigious, it will be attracting new interesting clubs, which will, naturally, bring profits to basketball.”
“If it comes to money, how is the Northern League financed?”
“Amateurs have gone professional lately and begun to earn good fees. But our system, unfortunately, has remained amateurish, which has a negative effect on the post- Soviet clubs. For they have to pay money themselves, although it is common knowledge that if you do something better than others you should be paid for it.
“But in Europe, teams pay for everything, including participation. Paradoxically, American basketball players earn money and ours give it away. So we have armed ourselves with the overseas system. Firstly, the League paid for all transfers, room and board, referees, and transportation. On top of this, the four strongest clubs will get $100,000. To offset expenses, we in turn signed a contract with television which has already understood that the League sells a quality product manufactured by high-class players. I think in Ukraine, too, it is possible, given the right approach to business, to attract a 15% audience to the home screens, which in turn is a tasty tidbit for advertisers.”
“Did you introduce many NBA rules to enhance the spectacular effect?”
“And why should we spurn tried and true experience which makes the game more dynamic and attractive? Yes, our matches consist of four 10-minute periods. Each of the teams has 24 seconds for attacks and 8 seconds for transferring the ball to the front zone. There are 2.5-minute intervals between the four periods and a 15-minute half-time.
“What do you think about participation of the Ukrainian Kyiv Basketball Club in the NEBL championship?”
“Sasha Volkov and I talked for many hours about the revival of Ukrainian and Lithuanian basketball, which had always seriously challenged the Russians and snatched the most coveted prizes from them in spite of biased refereeing. Of course, the league is interested in Kyiv as the club is a member. For today your talented boys play in other countries instead of pleasing the Ukrainian spectator. Besides, Sasha and I have begun to meet more often... For we — Sabonis, Kurtinaitis, Volkov, and me — were young and happy when we became Olympic champions, although Arvidas [Sabonis] is still the best in his NBA club even today. This is destiny.”
“And the last thing. Ukraine knows you have set up a children’s basketball school in Lithuania. Tell me about it.”
“I will say the school teaches not only basketball but also gives lessons in ethics, esthetics, computer science, and English. I won’t hide that it looses money and is being financed by me. It will continue to loose money, for it was founded not for the sake of profit (believe me, I have earned quite a lot during my sport career) but for the sake of children themselves. They should not hang around on the street but find happiness in a different pursuit. Maybe some of this school’s graduates will remember it with warmth and pass on that warmth to others. For it is always best to pay for quality”.
